A New, Cool Netflix Web Player

Netflix rocks! I love my streaming Netflix over my Roku box. Now, they have an improved web based player for your PC, or tablet devices!

Netflix launches sexy new web-based video player

“Netflix just rolled out a completely revamped video player for browser-based viewing, and I gotta say, it’s pretty slick: Not only does it come with lightbox-like text overlays while a video is paused, users can also preview entire seasons of a TV show while they’re watching one episode of the show in full-screen mode. I was told by Netflix that this is currently rolling out across the web.

The only downside of the new player seems to be that there can be some issues with Chrome on Mac OS – a warning screen told me to switch to Safari or Firefox for the best viewing experience. However, a quick test showed that basic playback was working just fine via OS X Chrome. A Netflix spokesperson explained via email: ‘Chrome on Mac support is a limitation of Microsoft Silverlight, not Netflix. It works on some Macs but not on others, so we allow it and give users a warning.’

The player makes way for additional information, lightbox-style, when paused for a few seconds.

Netfix users can also resize the browser window during playback, and the video is resized fairly smoothly. This should make it easier to watch something while you’re doing something else on your computer, or adjust the size of the video window to play it on a connected TV.

Netflix has been emphasizing playback on connected devices, which now make up for the vast majority of the service’s usage, but today’s relaunch clearly show that there is still a notable demand for PC-based playback as well.”